Due to the increased competition and high costs of acquisition in the cellular industry, it has become increasingly important for companies to focus on retaining clients. This paper outlines the current industry conditions and studies the causes of consumer switching behaviour, as outlined by Susan Keaveney (1995) in her study of the service industry, and identifies additional factors specific to the cellular industry. The focus of the study is to identify the most important factors that cause consumers to switch. Using primary research, the author evaluates how TELUS Mobility is rated on each of the factors against the competition, by its own clients and the competitor's clients. Finally, the author provides recommendations to TELUS Mobility to effectively enhance its customer retention and build long-term client relationships.

Traditionally, and for several years, consumer goods companies have relied heavily on branding to successfully market and sell products. Recently, however, the pharmaceutical industry has recognized the importance and significance of branding even more and has re-structured their marketing departments to now include brand managers for their products. Consumer goods companies have followed a particular structure in how they brand their products. It is still debatable, however, if this model can be transferred and adapted to the pharmaceutical industry. This paper discusses the meaning of branding in general, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of it. Next, the need for branding in the pharmaceutical company is discussed followed by the advantages and challenges of branding in this industry. Examples are given of pharmaceutical companies that currently use these branding strategies. The paper proceeds with a discussion about specific branding strategies that are effective for this industry, and finally, consumer perceptions of generic versus branded drugs are examined. In addition to the secondary research discussed in this paper, additional primary research is conducted to answer several questions pertaining to consumer views on branded versus generic medications in terms of perception of price differential, advertising differences, and purchase decision influences. The results are discussed followed by some implications and conclusions. Finally, the project concludes with some recommendations to pharmaceutical companies about the results of the paper and tips for successful branding.

This paper approaches the problem of skilled immigrant underemployment at the human resource professional level by focusing on the relationship between communications disconnects caused by cultural differences and hiring decisions. It was confirmed that within the Vancouver tech industry, only a small percentage of skilled Asian immigrants applying get hired with the two most commonly cited factors affecting employers decision to hire being communication skills and the ability to work within the Canadian context. Employers were aware that they are turning away skilled Asian immigrants, but felt it was a 'business decision' based on perceived negative effects on productivity. Employers were concerned with not only the cost, but also the knowledge required for successful integration. Although there is a definite need for cultural integration programs, it may be unrealistic to expect employers to provide them and there may be a role for educational institutions to help fill this void.

The purpose of the paper is to provide a marketing strategy for CWRTC (China Water Reuse Trade Consortium) to enter into the construction industry in China that needs new water reuse technologies. In this paper, the authors first review the current water and wastewater market in China, and identify the prospects for future growth. Then the authors analyze in depth the competitors, substitutes, buyers, and suppliers of CWRTC. The authors also investigate the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. After the research and analysis, the authors make recommendations for CWRTC to sell its water reuse products and services into the residential, commercial, and industrial property development market and the building retrofit market. The authors also discuss the potential risks and suggest solutions. The authors end the paper with recommendations for potential issues leading to the next research stage.

Succession planning is fast becoming an urgent issue facing today's organizations. Looming mass retirements due to the baby boomer generation means that organizations can expect to lose knowledgeable and experienced workers, and finding replacements will be difficult as mass retirements force a labour shortage. Consequently, many organizations are creating succession plans. In an investigation of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range Succession Plan, internal documents and previous government surveys were analyzed, and stakeholder interviews were conducted to assess the Ministry's readiness to adapt and implement this project. This investigation concludes that the Ministry's plans are thorough, yet many opportunities for improvement exist. In addition, analysis of the visioning process relating to employee buy-in showed that different visioning processes seemed to lead to different degrees of employee alignment with change objectives. Opportunities for improving visioning were derived and recommended to the Ministry of Forests and Range.

Faced with increasing fiscal restraint and political pushes for efficiency, Canada's health care system is on the verge of maximizing internal resources through employee involvement programs. However, faced with a history of poor labour-management relations, broken promises, and general mistrust, the employees of these organizations are skeptical at best when faced with the introduction of an employee involvement program. Using the context of an organizational change initiative at Ridge Meadows Hospital in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, an examination of the usage of employee involvement was conducted. While the findings closely corroborate management literature espousing the benefits of employee involvement programs, key obstacles must still be overcome to maximize its effectiveness. Overall, the usage of employee involvement may hold the promise of realizing such internal gains that Canada's health care system may be able to stave off the pressure to privatize or consume ever increasing portions of government budgets.

This thesis is a collection of three papers that have the valuation of derivative securities as a common theme. The first paper empirically compares three convertible bond valuation models. We use an innovative approach where all model parameters are estimated by the Marquardt (1963) algorithm using a subsample of convertible bond prices. The model parameters are then used for out-of-sample forecasts of convertible bond prices. The mean absolute deviation, which is calculated as the absolute difference between the model and the market price and expressed as a percentage of the market price, is 1.70% for the Ayache-Forsyth-Vetzal (2003) model, 1.74% for the Tsiveriotis-Fernandes (1998) model, and 2.12% for the Brennan-Schwartz (1980) model. For this and other measures of fit, the Ayache-Forsyth-Vetzal and the Tsiveriotis-Fernandes models outperform the Brennan-Schwartz model. The second paper examines the market memory effect in convertible bond markets. More specifically, we look at the pricing of convertible bonds issued after the original issuer adversely redeemed previous issues without giving an opportunity for investors to benefit from bond value appreciation. We find evidence that the market underprices new convertible bond issues of firms that call their bonds early. We also find that the degree of market underpricing depends on whether the convertibles are more debt- or equity-like. In the third paper, the European put-call parity condition is used to estimate the early exercise premium for American currency options traded on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Using a sample of 331 pairs of call and put options with the same exercise price and time to expiration, we find that the early exercise premium on average is 5.03% for put options and 4.60% for call options. The premia for both call and put options are strongly related to the interest rate differential and time to expiration. These results are important to consider when valuing American currency options using European option pricing models.

Succession Planning is fast becoming an urgent issue facing today's organizations. Looming mass retirements due to the baby boomer generation means that organizations can expect to lose knowledgeable and experienced workers and finding replacements will be difficult as mass retirements force a labour shortage. Consequently, many organizations are creating succession plans. In an investigation of the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range Succession Plan, internal documents and previous government surveys were analyzed, and stakeholder interviews were conducted to assess the Ministry's readiness to adapt and implement this project. This investigation concludes that the Ministry's plans are thorough, yet many opportunities for improvement exist. Additionally, this succession research provides strategies, tools, and processes for successful succession planning and discusses recommendations.

This article attempts to explain export behaviour of Canadian firms by testing whether psychic distance is a significant factor in the choice of export market. 250 Canadian exporters responded and the results were analysed. The survey proves inconclusive as to whether psychic distance plays a role in the choice of export markets, leading the authors to conclude that Canadian exports have increased significantly enough so as to require a more complex model involving more than one factor.

International Joint Ventures (IJVs) are an increasingly popular mode of entry into foreign markets. This project explores the possibility that high profile events (HPEs) have stimulated their creation. I examined two HPEs, the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics Games, and how they used various incentives through their Investment 2000 and Operation Legacy economic programs to influence the formation of IJVs. From this a number of key learnings emerge to form a best practices guide that can be used to improve joint venture (JV) success.